We Knew This Web Thing Was Just a Fad

The conventional wisdom is that the internet is all-powerful, and therefore immune from the slump that's affecting boring old companies in the tedious real world. But Brand Republic reports that Amazon has just taken a billion dollars off its 2008 revenue projections -- a 14 percent shave. And Yahoo and eBay are cutting about 2,500 jobs. Could it be that online companies are subject to the same economic shocks as ordinary mortals?

On the bright side, Google is hanging in, in part because it's "concentrating on targeting users more efficiently with relevant search ads," and in part because they don't deal in the boring commodities that are plummeting around us. Let us be grateful that, as our incomes dwindle, Google will know that we're looking for jobs and perhaps shopping carts (the kind we can keep all our belongings in, not the online variety), and advertise to us accordingly.